Better off a Shepherd than a Wise Man

Sheep herders. That’s who got the message first, besides Joseph and Mary that is. It wasn’t the high priest or the Jewish prelates or the most holy person in Israel or the most avid practitioner of the law to whom God revealed his plan. It was sheep herders. That’s one step down from camel wrangler. It might have been the lowest rung on the prestige ladder in ancient Israel, like being a sheet rock hanger or a house painter today (my apologies to those of you applying your honest trade, I was a house painter for many years, so I speak from first hand experience). It was shepherds heard it first.

Not Oprah. Not the new CEO of General Motors. Not the chairman of some Senate committee. Not the Three Wise Men.

Here is what the Scriptures say happened and I will embellish them with my own wild speculations to round out the story. These shepherd boys were doing their job as usual, which means they were staying up all night in the middle of winter (if it was winter) guarding sheep – not a glamour position. Guarding sheep against what? Well, predators first - dogs, wolves, etc., but undoubtedly sheep-rustlers too. Sheep, I have heard, can be somewhat suicidal and I’m sure their job included keeping the more adventurous sheep from wandering off into self-destruction. I’m thinking this may have been very boring, demoralizing work. These shepherds could easily have been guys who were unemployable losers. Maybe they lost their jobs at Starbuck’s or In ‘n Out Burger (for smoking pot behind the dumpster) and they couldn’t go back to live with their mothers and now they’re out of options and doing what nobody else wanted to do – living in the fields trying to keep stupid sheep from killing themselves. I would further guess they found um… less-than-socially-approved ways of keeping themselves amused while they performed this incredibly unsatisfying work. I will not speculate here what they may have been doing all night because this is a family program and I don’t want any small children to end up on the psychiatrist’s couch when they’re forty years old recounting vague and disturbing memories of what ancient shepherds did when they were bored.

So it was a typical night, nothing unusual … when suddenly “an angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory (doxa) of the Lord shone around them (perie-lamps-en = shone like a lamp) and, as the Greek text says, “they feared a great fear (ephob-ethe-san phobon megan).” Fear like that rarely comes to the likes of you and me. I mean here they are rolling dice and drinking and telling lies about the girls they’ve known when all of a sudden the glory of God turns on like a lamp and bang! they are sitting or standing in the light. What were they thinking? The same thing you and I would think, I think.

“Busted!”

“Please don’t destroy us; we’ll be good from now on.”

“I’ll be in the synagogue this Sabbath, I promise.”

“Does anyone have any extra underwear?”

“You don’t scare me; my dad’s a lawyer.” (Okay, none of them thought that.)

And the angel says to them, “No fear. No need to be afraid because I hereby announce to you all a great joy (karan megalen)…” and the angel goes on to touch on the basics of Christmas. That God is coming to earth. The Word, the Logos, is coming as a human born of God, and he will reconcile all people (laos) to himself. Nobody, not even you losers will be punished for your evil deeds because God has reconciled or made right, your relationship with him – from his side. It’s like the Year of Jubilee has come permanently to earth. And we’re not just talking about the Jewish nation; we’re talking about all the people (panti to lao). “Can you boys grasp how joyous this news is?” the angel seems to ask.

I think they do. I think they get it. I think they get it real good.

And the angel tells these shepherd boys to go into Bethlehem and check it out and see for themselves. And they do and they beat the three wise men there. They’re first. The sheep herding loser crowd is first to the barn where Jesus lay. I think this is very significant.

But before they leave for Bethlehem, something even more amazing takes place with the angel. Suddenly it’s not just one angel with a glory lamp, suddenly it’s a giant heavenly army (plathos [multitude] stratias [army] houraniou [of a heavenly]) praising God. It’s like this giant army of angels were sort of hiding there in secret but when they hear the angel explain the Christmas story, the Father’s plan of redemption for the world, they lose control, blow their cover, reveal themselves and erupt with applause and praise and cheers and rejoicing because the plan is so … cool. They just can’t help it.

And the whole giant army shouts out “Glory to God … who figured out how to save these people by becoming one of them! Who saw that coming? Who knew? What a plan!!! God is great and every human being (anthropos) who agrees with, or accepts, or approves, or has good will toward this plan, or says ‘yes’ at the right place will have peace with God and be the direct beneficiaries of the complete work of the Son of God!!!”

And the sheep herders realize that they have just gotten the biggest break they will ever get in their whole lives times ten and they forget about the sheep and go looking for the Savior in Bethlehem.

And so it was that the persons who first heard the Christmas message were the ones who needed it most. God bless those boys. That’s why we would be better off as a shepherd than a wise one.

And this tells us something very important about God. God is patient, not willing that any should perish, not even loser shepherd boys who can’t hold a job.